Meijo University Wins Second-Straight Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden National Title

The Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden, the National University Women's Ekiden Championships Invitational, took place Dec. 30 in Shizuoka. 22 universities from across the country and two select teams competed for the national title in the midst of cold rain, with Nagoya's Meijo University covering the seven-stage, 43.4 km course in 2:23:09 to win for the second year in a row.

After a slow start that saw it sitting 3rd halfway through the race, Meijo's fourth runner Yuma Yamamoto ran a course record 13:55 for her 4.4 km stage to cut the defending champs' deficit way down. Meijo's next runner, 2019 World University Championships half marathon silver medalist Rika Kaseda, ran the fastest time for the race's longest stage to move the team up from 3rd to 1st. Sixth runner Narumi Kobayashi likewise won her stage on time to give Meijo a lead it kept all the way through the uphill anchor stage.

Meijo's win was both its second-straight and second ever and followed its win at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden. Morinomiyako runner-up Daito Bunka University was 2nd again, with the National Select Team starting fast to lead the first two stages and hold off Morinomiyako 3rd-placer Ritsumeikan University for the 3rd spot overall.

Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden

National University Women's Ekiden Championships Invitational
24 teams, 43.4 km, 7 stages
complete results

Top Team Results
1. Meijo University - 2:23:09
2. Daito Bunka University - 2:24:25
3. National Select Team - 2:25:22
4. Ritsumeikan University - 2:25:45
5. Josai University - 2:26:16
6. Kyoto Sangyo University - 2:27:27
7. Nittai University - 2:27:38
8. Osaka Gakuin University - 2:27:59
9. Juntendo University - 2:28:48
10. Toyo University - 2:29:02

Top Individual Stage Performances
First Stage (4.1 km) - Yuki Kanemitsu (National Select Team) - 12:50
Second Stage (6.8 km) - Rino Goshima (National Select Team) - 20:40 - CR
Third Stage (3.3 km) - Mai Misaki (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 10:07 - CR
Fourth Stage (4.4 km) - Yuma Yamamoto (Meijo Univ.) - 13:55 - CR
Fifth Stage (10.5 km) - Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) - 34:51
Sixth Stage (6.0 km) - Narumi Kobayashi (Meijo Univ.) - 19:40
Seventh Stage (8.3 km, ~200 m uphill) - Erika Tanoura (Toyo Univ.) - 29:17

source article:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20191230/k10012232281000.html
translated by Brett Larner

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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